I wrote a column looking back at how fact-checking has become both easier and harder. The work itself — researching, reporting and publishing — is flourishing, while our political discourse has gotten meaner and more partisan. Read my thoughts here.

From left: Aaron Sharockman, Politifact’s executive director; Angie Holan, Politifact Editor; PolitiFact founder Bill Adair, and Tampa Bay Times Editor and Vice President Neil Brown at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, August 22, 2017. (Photo by Eve Edelheit of the Tampa Bay Times)

We also held an event at the Poynter Institute where myself, founding editor Bill Adair and Tampa Bay Times executive editor Neil Brown discussed PolitiFact’s birth; we also took questions from the audience. Read a report about the event.

]]>http://www.angieholan.com/politifact-turns-10/feed/0594CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ and fact-checking President Trumphttp://www.angieholan.com/cnns-reliable-sources-and-fact-checking-president-trump/
http://www.angieholan.com/cnns-reliable-sources-and-fact-checking-president-trump/#respondSat, 19 Aug 2017 15:02:41 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=592Continue reading →]]>CNN’s Brian Stelter of Reliable Sources recently penned a column on the impact of fact-checking on President Donald Trump and his administration. Then Brian invited me and the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler on the show to discuss it.

I told Brian that people “are better informed than ever about what politicians say and if their statements are literally true or not,” partly thanks to specialized fact-checkers, and partly thanks to “traditional political journalists putting corrective information into their reports much more than they used to.” Read his full column and check out the Reliable Sources segment below.

]]>http://www.angieholan.com/cnns-reliable-sources-and-fact-checking-president-trump/feed/0592Fact-checkers meet in Spain for Global Fact 4http://www.angieholan.com/fact-checkers-meet-in-spain-for-global-fact-4/
http://www.angieholan.com/fact-checkers-meet-in-spain-for-global-fact-4/#commentsSat, 08 Jul 2017 19:57:16 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=577Continue reading →]]>MADRID — For the fourth year in a row, I’ve gathered with fact-checkers from around the world to discuss best practices and highest principles, with lots of time for socializing. We come together to confab, commiserate and encourage as we all go about our work of holding the powerful accountable and giving our readers the facts on what’s true and what’s not.

I saw two major themes at this year’s conference: technology and trust.

For technology, Bill Adair of Duke Reporters’ Lab showed us the latest on automation and Share the Facts, coding that allows fact-checks to be shared and highlighted in search findings. Meanwhile, the UK fact-checkers at Full Fact showed us how they’re using automated processes to identify and flag false statements and then present corrective information simultaneously. Both efforts are exciting and point to new ways of getting accurate, vetted information in front of people on the Internet.

Interestingly, basic trust struck me as the trickier issue. Several speakers mentioned the high levels of partisanship among the general public, a.k.a. our audience. That partisanship sometimes makes people hostile to fact-checking or evidence-based findings that contradict their world view. As one academic put it, partisanship is a social identity, not a cognitive tool. That means people can perceive fact-checking as threatening (or bolstering) to their own sense of identity, instead of simply seeing fact-checks as information that helps them make decisions. Reaching out to audiences that are suspicious of fact-checking remains one of our most important tasks, and we’re still figuring out the best ways to understand and address their concerns about our processes and work.

Laura Zommer of Chequeado and I present on fact-checking methods at Global Fact 4 in Madrid. (Photo by Mario Garcia)

The International Fact-checking Network, which grew out of the first year’s conference, hosted this event and announced new grants to increase fact-checking’s reach around the world. The next few years will be exciting, and I’m already looking forward to Global Fact 5 in 2018.

]]>http://www.angieholan.com/fact-checkers-meet-in-spain-for-global-fact-4/feed/3577Thoughts on International Fact-checking Dayhttp://www.angieholan.com/thoughts-on-international-fact-checking-day/
http://www.angieholan.com/thoughts-on-international-fact-checking-day/#respondSun, 02 Apr 2017 22:55:36 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=572Continue reading →]]>PolitiFact joined with other fact-checkers from around the world to observe International Fact-Checking Day on April 2. Here’s the column I wrote about why we need a day to celebrate fact-checking and how the International Fact-Checking Network came up with the idea. It starts:

With all the phony headlines and hoaxes floating around the Internet, it can feel like April Fool’s any day of the year.

At PolitiFact, we’re debunking more false claims than ever. It’s a sad trend that people will maliciously invent fictitious stories and then pass them off as real, hoping for clicks. That’s our definition of fake news.

The hoax stories tend to straddle the line between absurd and disturbing. READ MORE …

]]>http://www.angieholan.com/c-spans-washington-journal-and-tracking-president-barack-obamas-campaign-promises/feed/0553Fixing a broken roux for gumbohttp://www.angieholan.com/fixing-a-broken-roux-for-gumbo/
http://www.angieholan.com/fixing-a-broken-roux-for-gumbo/#respondSun, 01 Jan 2017 17:39:10 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=538Continue reading →]]>The dreaded broken roux … It’s when something goes wrong in cooking gumbo, and instead of a luscious, uniform, thick roux, you end up with a separated sauce that seems to have tiny globules of flour floating around in oil. It’s totally gross, and it’s a classic broken roux. (Some would call it a separated roux.)

I used to have lots of problems with broken roux (roux’s?). I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong … I wondered if I was adding the water (some people add stock) at the wrong temperature. One article I read advised a lukewarm stock … I fiddled with that for awhile and couldn’t come up with anything like consistent results. Finally, I read somewhere that it was a myth that you should add EQUAL parts of fat and flour to make a roux. This advice said you should add more flour than fat, by anywhere from a third to a half more flour, to avoid the dreaded broken roux. I started doing this, and lo and behold, I haven’t had a broken roux since. Coincidence? Perhaps. There is art and mystery in the cooking of the gumbo.

Another important question: Is there a fix for a roux once its broken? I only found one fix for a separated roux, which is taking pre-made cold roux from “roux in a jar” (which I don’t normally use) and mixing it into the gumbo with the broken roux, and then bringing the whole thing to a boil for a few minutes. (I like Savoie’s Old Fashioned Dark Roux). I have a hunch this isn’t so much about fixing the broken roux and it is masking the broken roux. But we do what we must in such cases … And if you don’t have roux in a jar on hand, I have no other solution to offer. Sorry!

]]>http://www.angieholan.com/fixing-a-broken-roux-for-gumbo/feed/0538Fact-checking fake news on Facebookhttp://www.angieholan.com/fact-checking-fake-news-on-facebook/
http://www.angieholan.com/fact-checking-fake-news-on-facebook/#respondMon, 19 Dec 2016 04:00:20 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=546PolitiFact recently announced it would join with other independent fact-checkers to fact-check fake news on Facebook. (Read PolitiFact’s announcement.) I talked about that initiative with Brian Stelter on CNN’s Reliable Sources.
]]>http://www.angieholan.com/fact-checking-fake-news-on-facebook/feed/0546Unveiling ‘Lie of the Year’ on MTP Dailyhttp://www.angieholan.com/unveiling-lie-of-the-year-on-mtp-daily/
http://www.angieholan.com/unveiling-lie-of-the-year-on-mtp-daily/#respondThu, 15 Dec 2016 01:54:59 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=535PolitiFact unveiled its “Lie of the Year” for 2016 on MTP Daily with Chuck Todd. Read the story on the PolitiFact website.

]]>http://www.angieholan.com/unveiling-lie-of-the-year-on-mtp-daily/feed/0535Harry Potter guest blog on MarkHolan.orghttp://www.angieholan.com/harry-potter-guest-blog-on-markholan-org/
http://www.angieholan.com/harry-potter-guest-blog-on-markholan-org/#respondThu, 08 Dec 2016 01:21:06 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=527Continue reading →]]>I wrote a guest post for Mark Holan’s Irish-American Blog about the world of Harry Potter and a surprising connection to an Irish-American immigrant. I’ll send you over to Mark’s site to read the whole post, which is pegged to the new movie, “Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them.” READ MORE.
]]>http://www.angieholan.com/harry-potter-guest-blog-on-markholan-org/feed/0527Scrolling on an iPhone causes motion sickness?http://www.angieholan.com/scrolling-on-an-iphone-causes-motion-sickness/
http://www.angieholan.com/scrolling-on-an-iphone-causes-motion-sickness/#respondMon, 21 Nov 2016 13:27:35 +0000http://www.angieholan.com/?p=506Continue reading →]]>The scrolling on my iPhone Safari browser gives me motion sickness. It’s that same feeling I had as a child being carsick on long car rides. Even today I get queasy sometimes if I try to read in the car or if I sit on the D.C. metro going backwards. I’ve tried adjusting the motion settings on my phone to see if it would help, but it hasn’t. It’s something about scrolling and reading that is affecting me, because I don’t get the feeling at all on my Kindle, which turns pages rather than scrolling.

I’ve done some intensive searching on the Internet about this experience to see if anyone else has had it, and I’ve come up with nothing. I’m very interested in hearing about others’ experience or any studies of this phenomenon. My iPhone is a big part of my life and it’s not pleasant to feel ill while reading on it. If there’s a solution to this problem, I’d certainly like to find it.